Course Descriptions

Business Core Courses

MBA 501 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING
This course will review the process of identification, measurement, accumulation, analysis, preparation, interpretation, and communication of financial information used by management to plan, evaluate, and control within an organization and to assure appropriate use of and accountability for its resources. Managerial Accounting also comprises the preparation of financial reports for non-management groups such as shareholders, creditors, regulatory agencies, and tax authorities (3 credits).

MBA 502 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
This course will review the principles and methods of financing business organizations and evaluating internal control problems and the concepts and analytical techniques applicable to identifying and solving financial management problems (3 credits).

MBA 503 MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS
This course is concerned with the application of economic principles and methodologies to the decision-making process of large organizations operating under conditions of uncertainty. Managers are likely to be more successful if they understand how their actions affect market forces, and how market forces affect their firms. Managerial Economics provides a framework for approaching management decisions such as pricing, employment, and investment with the analytical tools of the professional economist (3 credits).

MBA 504 BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND MODELING FOR MANAGERS
Business Analysis and Modeling for Managers is an exciting field in today’s dynamic, competitive world. Business managers deal with large amount of data and information. A unifying element of the course is the use of Excel to perform various analysis in a spread sheet environment. In this course, students develop skills in using Excel to examine and report data. Students will be able to make strategic decisions using various concepts, methods, and quantitative tools in the field of data analysis and modeling (3 credits).

MBA 505 MARKETING CONCEPTS AND STRATEGIES
Corporate managers seek effective strategies to deal with an ever changing market environment. They monitor and assess the marketplace, competition, laws and regulations, business cycles, customer needs, and other important factors to identify opportunities. This course is designed to evaluate the corporate tasks needed to develop an effective marketing strategy. Decisions related to marketing mix elements, including product, price, distribution, and promotion will be analyzed, as well as the development of a strategic marketing plan (3 credits).

MBA 506 MANAGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATION
Information systems are the backbone and nervous system of every business organization. It is therefore imperative that business students possess a solid grounding in the principles of the information systems discipline. This course stresses the importance of delivering the right information to the right person, in the right fashion, and at the right time; and the consequent improvements gained in organizational effectiveness (3 credits).

MBA 507 BUSINESS LAW FOR MANAGERS
This course provides coverage of traditional business law topics and addresses the legal environment in which business must operate. Contemporary business law concepts and cases are discussed, including modern statutory and regulatory law and recent court decisions. In addition to providing the student with an understanding of the American legal system, its structure, procedures, and concepts, the course also considers the scope of modern legal issues faced by business and how the law evolves as new business-related issues arise. The course also emphasizes the application of court decisions, statutes, and government relation to business. Legal terminology, concepts, structures, and process are covered (3 credits).

MBA 508 MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION THEORY
Based upon classical and contemporary theory and empirical research, this course provides an analysis of organizations, focusing on the impacts that organizations have upon individuals and society. The course focuses on how managers structure and operate organizations so that they are efficient and effective. In reviewing the field of organization studies, the course considers the past, present, and areas of likely significant future development in the study of organizations. Specifically, it surveys the development of rational, natural, and open systems theories—from earlier to contemporary versions—and provides a framework to allow students to comprehend past and present theories and to understand current controversies (3 credits).

MBA 509 MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES
This course provides the manager with a basic understanding of the field of human resource management as it is practiced today. Theories, concepts, terminology, procedures, laws, and regulations, are explored and discussed as they apply to the process of maintaining a well-qualified, motivated work force. In particular, students will explore the variety of problems, issues, and conflicts that may arise in the workplace and some of the strategies designed to deal with such problems (3 credits).

MBA 511 OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
In a globalized era, management executives need to understand the role of operations function and its impact on competitiveness. This course provides an understanding of manufacturing and service operations and their role in the organization. Students will learn how organizations effectively organize and manage the resources in producing goods or services that satisfy customer requirements. In addition, this course focuses on informed decision making using specific analytical tools. The course covers topics such a process flow analysis, project management, supply chain management, capacity planning, facilities location, total quality management, materials management, scheduling and quality control, manufacturing and service strategy, inventory management and forecasting. (3 credits)

Areas of Concentration

International Business Courses

MBA 641 INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
In an environment in which a large portion of income of U.S. firms is earned in foreign markets, foreign competitors increase their market share in the United States, and national economies have become interdependent in the global market, most marketing strategies become international in scope.

This course is designed to investigate the implications of the global market for U.S. companies and how it affects their marketing strategies as they are competing in markets around the world. Attention will be focused on problems such as identifying and evaluating opportunities in overseas markets, developing and adapting marketing strategies in relation to specific national market needs and constraints (3 credits).

MBA 642 INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
The focus of this course is on the specific problems encountered by those concerned with finance in companies with substantial international involvement—it is the international equivalent of a corporate finance course. The course content is especially designed for students aspiring for careers in international business, including those who will be responsible for the financial management of large and small corporations, international trading companies, or banks whose customers include business firms affected by international markets (3 credits).

MBA 643 INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
This course takes a cross-cultural and functional perspective in international management. Managerial functions are discussed in a cross-cultural setting of an international operation. Emphasis is placed on the importance of cross-cultural differences and the challenges of working in a diverse work environment where people may not share the same basic values and assumptions (3 credits).

MBA 644 INTERNATIONAL LAW AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION
The course discusses the nature and rationale of the legal regulation of international economic affairs among businesses in the cross-border context. It introduces students to the risks of international business and an examination of how those risks differ from doing business domestically. It covers international trade and investment from a legal and managerial perspective. Topics include the regulations and the risks associated with exporting, importing, foreign licensing, franchising, and foreign direct investment. (3 credits)

MBA 645 INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL RELATIONS
This course offers the study of international relations and its relation to international economics and international business. Sometimes referred to as “political economy” the course requires the analysis of both the way in which politics shapes the economy, and of the way in which the economy shapes politics. Considering the limitations of the conventional division of domestic and international politics and economics, the course investigates how the domestic politics of the world’s leading economic and military powers have wide-ranging effects on the domestic political economies of other nations (3 credits).

MBA 646 INTERNATIONAL TRADE
This course investigates the theories, institutions, and processes associated with international trade. The course examines the theoretical constructs necessary to understand the issues and problems that a business involved with international trade must face. The course also explores various mechanisms, such as import and export procedures and regulations that create today’s global systems for managing the exchange of goods, services, and labor between countries (3 credits).

Health Care Management Courses

MBA 651 HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATIONThis course serves as an overview of the issues, practices, and responsibilities facing the health care administrator. The course investigates each of the important aspects of health care administration and introduces students to the topics which constantly challenge health care executives. Areas covered include hospital and physician reimbursement, managed care, multi-provider systems, integrated health systems, business ventures in health care, and stake holder management. This is a course providing the application of organizational management techniques to health care institutions (3 credits).

MBA 652 HEALTH CARE FINANCE
An introduction to the management of a health care organization’s finances, including the operation of its financial accounting system. Evaluation of the organization’s financial situation using financial techniques and financial statements, cash management, credit analysis, capital structure and capital budgeting, funds management, and financial control (3 credits).

MBA 653 LAW FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS
This course will review the American legal system, including its courts, its statutes, and its common law, in order to provide the health care manager with a basic understanding of the number of significant ways in which legal mandates apply to one’s institution. A number of different areas of law will be studied, each selected for its influence on the management of health care institutions and health care providers. Legal cases will be examined, including significant court opinions, in order to bring students to a basic understanding of the manner in which their actions will be judged by our country’s legal systems (3 credits).

MBA 654 THE MARKETING FOR HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS
This course provides students with an overview of the areas of public involvement which affect the organizations ability to attract, serve, and generate the support of the community in which it is embedded. These include the marketing of the services and programs provided by the institution, the use of positive forms of publicity, and the generation of activities designed to foster a positive relationship with the individuals, organizations, and governments on which the institution depends (3 credits).

MBA 655 THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
This course will examine the social organization of the vast health care system in the United States today, emphasizing such topics as health expenditures and rising costs, equity in health services, financing health care, insurance (including HMOs), delivery of health care services, discrimination in health care delivery, social legislation, and the social implication of new health care technologies (3 credits).

MBA 656 HEALTH CARE POLICY
This course focuses on a wide range of policies including equity in health care delivery (e.g., how to provide care for the elderly, the poor, the homeless, those with cancer, AIDS, those chemically dependent, and other life threatening illnesses), proposals for cost control, regulation of safety, insurance, and the distribution of medical resources (3 credits).

Management of Nonprofit Organizations Courses

MBA 691 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT
As the general foundation course for the nonprofit concentration, this course focuses on
management and administrative issues relating to nonprofit organization. Administrative structure and other subjects related to the difference between nonprofit and for-profit organizations will be addressed. Subjects covered include constituencies, boards, strategic planning, marketing, financial management, human resources, volunteer management, and resource development.

This course is designed to provide the student with a clear understanding of the most important management issues in the nonprofit sector and to provide the student with a firm foundation in nonprofit administrative concepts and theories. The student will learn to appreciate the difference between the for-profit and nonprofit organization and related management techniques and issues specific to the nonprofit organization as compared to the for-profit or public sector (3 credits).

MBA 692 FUNDRAISING AND INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENTThe purpose of this course is to introduce students to a variety of fund raising methods, provide the context in which these methods might be used, and provide an understanding of how fund raising operates within public and not-for-profit organizations. The course is directed at students pursuing a management career in the not-for-profit section as well as other graduate students interested in fund raising within public and nonprofit organizations (3 credits).

MBA 693 ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONSWith the increase in the sense of social responsibility in society has come a corresponding increase in the number of nonprofit organizations and in the volume of their activities. Approximately one third of the volume of business in the United States is conducted by governmental units and charitable organizations. As such organizations play an increasingly significant role, accounting for these organizations is receiving more and more attention. For example, a Governmental Accounting standards Board (GASB), similar to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), has been proposed. This body would be responsible for establishing accounting standards for state and local governmental units. Accounting for other nonprofit organizations, such as churches and hospitals, is also receiving attention by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and other professional accounting groups.

The accounting systems for all nonprofit organizations must provide financial data to internal management for use in planning and controlling operations, and to external parties, such as taxpayers and donors, for use in determining the effectiveness of operations. Thus, the focus of this course is both management control and financial accounting for nonprofit organizations (3 credits).

MBA 694 THE LAW AND GOVERNANCE OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONSThis course is designed to provide an overview of governance issues as well as basic contract, labor, and tax law issues within the area of nonprofit corporation law. Ethics in nonprofits is included with specific emphasis directed towards self-dealing, fiduciary responsibility, and human resource management. Legal issues covered include a variety of legal problems that nonprofit executive directors or their staff are likely to face, including board organization and management problems (3 credits).

MBA 695 MARKETING FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONSNonprofit marketing has become a major, legitimate field of study. Today, nonprofit organizations actively employ marketing techniques, including advertising, personal selling, public relations, and product design to reach their goals.

This course is designed to study the marketing strategies used by organizations in education, the arts, social services, libraries, and public services. Through case studies and practical examples the student will be introduced to the special needs of the nonprofit sector and the process for solving marketing problems, as well as the tools and techniques to make effective marketing decisions in specific areas (3 credits).

MBA 697 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITYThis course explores social entrepreneurship by investigating such questions as: Who are social entrepreneurs? How does social entrepreneurship differ from traditional business entrepreneurship? Can the impact of social entrepreneurship be assessed?

In exploring these issues, two foundational elements emerge as critical components in a working understanding of the nature of social entrepreneurship in today’s society: who are social entrepreneurs, and what does it take to be successful? (3 credits)

Internships and Study Abroad

MBA 675 INTERNSHIP
An internship experience provides students with an opportunity to explore career interests while applying knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a work setting. The experience also helps students gain a clearer sense of what they still need to learn and provides an opportunity to build professional networks (3 credits).

Internships connect the classroom to the world and provide Mount students the opportunity to:

Gain practical experience within for-profit and nonprofit business environments

Acquire knowledge of the industry in which the internship is done

Apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a work setting

Develop a greater understanding about career options while more clearly defining personal career goals

Experience the activities and functions of business professionals

Develop and refine oral and written communication skills

Identify areas for future knowledge and skill development

MBA 699 STUDY ABROAD
This course offers students an opportunity to combine travel and adventure with their M.B.A. degree. One of the most unique aspects of the College of Mount Saint Vincent’s M.B.A. curriculum is the opportunity to gain an international perspective by studying abroad. Students take their education overseas and view global, for-profit, and not-for-profit business ventures up close at one of two partner universities:

St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London

De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

Full-time M.B.A. students are able to spend either the fall or the spring term at one of our prestigious international partner universities studying international management, global economics, and business development, among other approved courses (12 credits).

Capstone Courses

MBA 701 ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP, ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to investigate the social responsibility of business, manners in which business leaders and managers deal with ethical issues, and the role of business professionals in the process of guiding (stewarding) the organization in the ways in which it is willing to acknowledge its influential role in the community and design efforts to respond to the important problems in that community (3 credits).

MBA 702 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
This course is intended as a capstone course in the M.B.A. program, integrating the various courses in the curriculum as the learning accomplished through the core courses and the electives in the student’s area of concentration is applied to the process of strategy formation and case review.

As students study the process of strategic management, they will focus on the tasks of crafting, implementing, and executing an organization’s strategy. Strategy is grounded in the array of competitive moves and business approaches management depends on to produce successful performance. The study of strategy, then, considers management’s game plan for strengthening the organization’s position, pleasing its customers, and achieving performance targets. Students will learn how managers devise strategies to guide how the company’s business will be conducted and to help them make reasoned, cohesive choices among alternative courses of action (3 credits).

MBA 703 COMPETING IN A GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
This course is intended as a vehicle for producing students who will be comfortable and effective in a worldwide marketplace. Today, allstudents—even those who will never have an overseas assignment—need to be knowledgeable about the global economy. Students must develop cultural literacy in international business. As a business professional they must be able to talk knowledgeably with a visiting executive from a French multinational corporation, or understand and analyze the impact on themselves and their firm of trade negotiations with Japan, devaluation of the Mexican peso, economic growth in China or Brazil, or the collapse of a British bank. It is the purpose of this course to provide such a foundation for future managers who must function in a global competitive environment (3 credits).

MBA 704 MBA DECISION LABORATORY
This course provides an opportunity to apply academic knowledge through participation in a managerial task within an organization (such as setting up a purchasing cooperative, devising an inventory system, and developing cost-benefit analyses of a New York City agency program). In other cases, it may be appropriate for students to work outside a business setting on a research-oriented project that has applied objectives. The thrust of the creative response here is toward solving an actual operating problem. In a graduate business program, performance of this type of task is an appropriate way to further develop the knowledge and skills acquired in academic learning (3 credits).